Minister of State for Innovation
and Public Administration
Public Service delivery
across the Western Balkans
Initiatives and innovations towards the EU
Concept Paper
18-19 May 2017, Tirana & Durrës
Conference organised by
ReSPA and the Albanian Ministry for Innovation and Public Administration
Background
The Regional School of Public Administration (ReSPA) is the inter-governmental organization for enhancing regional cooperation, promoting shared learning and supporting the development of public administration in the Western Balkans (WB).
ReSPA’s purpose is to help governments in the region develop better public administration, public services and overall governance systems for their citizens and businesses, and prepare them for membership in the European Union (EU).
Since its inception, ReSPA has contributed to the development of human resources and administrative capacities through training programmes and innovative cooperation mechanisms such as the exchange of good practices, peer reviews and development of know-how.
Based on the recommendations from ReSPA working group devoted to Quality of public administration and public services previous meetings, it was decided to organize a high-level conference devoted to Service Delivery as a comprehensive component of the PAR.
In addition, during 9th ReSPA Annual Conference focusing on the Optimization of Public Administration in the WB it was concluded that PAs across the region have already engaged deeply in reform processes, and they adopted strategic plans in all identified areas of optimization.
The goal that should be set for the next period is to address all necessary preconditions for improving performance and quality of services provided to citizens and businesses. This should aim at increased efficiency and productivity of services, but the basis needs to be provided for by the broader optimization of processes and structures of PA that should lead to rationalized, transparent and accountable new systems.
This process has to be supported by all key state and social stakeholders - and, above all, citizens that should be provided with opportunities to directly participate design and implementation of reforms, thus contributing to further democratization. Therefore, the Tirana event will initiate the dialogue which will lead towards identification of good case examples that may be further presented at 10th ReSPA Annual Conference “Innovation for improving quality of public services”
The event will be closely organized with the Government of Albania (GoA), as a forerunner in this area of the PAR in Western Balkan region.
The entire conference will be having local media coverage and it will be shared in the social media of RESPA and GoA institution.
The conference conclusions will be disseminated and presented to all relevant stakeholders at the EU, Danube region and in the Western Balkans.
Although the conference conclusions will feed in 10th ReSPA Annual Conference it will be equally that they could serve as a basis for further development of policy field and implementation of concrete initiatives and projects in Danube region and broader, secured by the political ownership.
Objectives
Similar to other WB member countries, as part of GoA’s focus in seeking EU accession is the transformation of service delivery in Albania through a citizen-centric approach. This is embodied at the international level in the commitments toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and objectives of regional cooperation initiatives.
Albania’s Cross-Cutting Public Administration Reform Strategy (PAR) 2015–2020, which constitutes the overall framework for the modernization and transformation of institutions and practices of public administration in the country states the vision of providing “high quality services for citizens and businesses in a transparent, effective, and efficient way through the use of modern technologies and innovative services, and that complies with the requirements of European integration through impartial, professional and accountable civil servants, part of efficient setups”.
Public Service delivery across the Western Balkans - Initiatives and innovations towards the EU conference will aim to present the current state of affairs of modernizing service delivery in WB region, with a particular emphasis on the Albanian model being currently implemented, through which a comprehensive panorama will be presented, as well as based on further analysis of each component of the Service delivery reform: (i)Re-engineering of service processes; (ii)Front Office – Back Office separation; (iii)Digitization of archives and IT systems interoperability; (iv)Citizen Feedback mechanism and Quality Management, WB representatives can gain detailed insights, understand the challenges faced and how they were mitigated, and of course lessons learned so far. The EU best practices will be also presented as a supplement to latter mentioned areas within service delivery aspect.
Government institutions are mandated by law to provide services to citizens and businesses. Despite expectations of beneficiaries, based also on the experience with customer service standards in the private sector, such as banks, telecommunications, etc., the problems they often encounter in interacting with these institutions have to do in various degrees with lack of information, transparency, accountability and efficiency, as well as cases of corruption.
Focusing on administrative services provided by central government institutions, the Albanian government aims at bringing about a transformational change in the way the government interacts with citizens/businesses to impact delivery of public services in general, including those by local government units and independent institutions.
Innovative solutions and information technology are considered as crucial contributors in this process.
GoA’s principal objectives, as with similar WB and EU cases involve transitioning to 100% towards e-services; enabling anytime, anywhere service access to citizens; creating 360° view of the citizen as well as achieving a high index of citizen satisfaction. Such principles in general should commonly be shared across WB members and beyond.
The discussions in the conference will enable participants to comprehensively understand from a technical standpoint the implications that may arise during implementation of such highly complex innovative solutions within a public context. More often than not, they require very strong political will, financing as well communication with the final beneficiaries, - citizens, for the sole reason that delivering modern public service entails strong stakeholder collaboration.
ReSPA beneficiaries share similarities and differences on many social and cultural features, however the Western Balkan (WB) region is strongly interlinked, with potential for further integration and growth.
As governments push towards modernization, service delivery is without a doubt an area that can display such efforts in a more tangible and impactful manner. Technological advancements along with progressive business like thinking have enabled EU member countries to simplify processes and increased access of public services from the comfort of their citizen’s home settings. As WB members’ objectives in the area of PAR, in addition to the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR), synergies, coordination and most importantly learning between across the Danube Region members is eminent in ensuring a successful outcome of this ambitious endeavour.
The conference is also an opportunity to present and discuss key findings of an ongoing comparative research that will result with Baseline analysis on Quality Management systems, tools and practices in Public Services in the WB countries. Main emphasize will be on QM tools that fit specific countries’ context as well as on emerging practices for improving quality of public service delivery and customer orientation. Above mentioned QM study is dealing with the public service delivery issues only in regard to application of Quality Management tools and practices and as such may initiate the dialogue during the Conference also in wider aspect of service delivery.
Actually, the study will identify which interviewed institutions use particular QM tools/practices in order to apply user oriented service delivery approach but without any deeper description of the practices and their local context. It will also show that countries in the region apply different strategies in reforming public services: one more focused on the services (e. g. Albania) and another one more focused on the QMS (e.g. Macedonia) with necessary interactions and convergence.
Participants for the duration of this conference are encouraged to actively participate through questions related to the subject and most importantly during the team activity scheduled in the conference agenda. Lastly, conference members jointly will provide suggestions on the role and support regional institutions such as ReSPA and cooperation framework such as EUSDR could provide towards PAR in general and service delivery in particular.
The meeting amongst WG members will close with a discussion session, where the audience will be given the opportunity to propose additional topics for further investigation. As stated above both discussions and conclusions will also contribute to preparation of the next ReSPA Annual Conference on 12-13 October 2017 by better identification of the areas where service delivery innovations are more needed and related criteria for selection of practices that should be presented at the Conference.
The representatives of beneficiaries from the respective region should be prepared to use this unique chance to connect with their colleagues from other countries, exchange experience and create future partnerships and possibilities for cooperation.
During each session, the participants will have time to react and for asking questions to the panellists.
Target audience / Participants
Meeting is intended for ministerial-level and high level participants from respective region, high-level EC representatives, government officials from the EU, and the Western Balkans, representatives of relevant international organisations, representatives of Chamber of commerce, Business sector associations and relevant civil society organisations and academia. General public will be addressed at the beginning of the conference by the participating ministers.
The conference will be in Albanian / Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian / Macedonian / English.